Several factors are at work driving down CPM prices, Advertising Age reports. For starters, the economy is tanking, and advertisers are cutting back on their brand campaigns, which includes display ad spending. Then there's the expanding glut of online inventory that's putting further stress on prices and making it even harder to monetize content. According to unnamed sources on both the buying and selling sides, cost-per-thousand ad impressions for online publishers are about 20% this year, and whereas publishers used to unload 60% of their inventory, some now sell only 30%. And the low end of the market has gotten …

The (London) Times reports that eBay is getting ready to sell Skype, the Voice Over Internet Protocol provider purchased by the Web giant for $2.6 billion four years ago. Industry watchers believe that CEO John Donahue signaled eBay's intent to sell during the company's fourth quarter earnings call last week. Donahue described Skype as a "great stand-alone business", admitting that, "the synergies between Skype and the other parts of our portfolio are minimal. We're going to continue to run and operate the business. It's not a distraction currently. And at such time when we have further announcements on that, we'll …

Despite the doom and gloom in the overall economy, the first few months of 2009 are shaping up to be better for the online advertising market than the gloomsters once predicted. That said, many businesses have reported slowdowns, especially as a result of pricing pressure in the ad networks space, "but the abysmal first quarter that many anticipated...hasn't happened," Mediaweek reports. "I was one of the people that thought Q1 would be disastrous, but so far it's not that bad," says Jim Spanfeller, president and CEO of Forbes.com. "Things have been OK. It's not the nuclear winter we feared." Even …

It's a vexing problem for Web video producers: How do you build a loyal audience and keep it coming back? As Advertising Age's Michael Learmonth points out, in the short history of the Web series, producers have struggled to replicate the TV model where audiences come back and even build from the first episode. "Online audiences are spotty, fickle and distracted," says Learmonth, and "even the best web series have trouble getting numbers when they're not getting front-page promotion on a major video portal such as YouTube or MySpace Video." To illustrate that point, Ad Age asked Web analytics firm …

In a down economy, venture funding usually dries up pretty fast, but the Los Angeles Times talks with two local companies who just managed to raise the cash. Gamervision, a social networking site for video gamers, announced a $5 million funding round on Friday. President Andrew Reisini said the trick was to avoid venture capital firms, hitting up angel investors and others who had already invested in the company's first round instead. "In this atmosphere, it is very, very difficult to deal with any sort of institutions whatsoever," Reisini said. "We would advise people to look within the group of …

A pair of write-downs was the only black mark on an otherwise strong fourth-quarter performance from search giant Google. With regard to its $1 billion investment in AOL in 2005, Google took a $726 million impairment charge. Google also took a $355 million charge on its investment in WiMAX provider Clearwire. As paidContent's David Kaplan points out, considering that Google's AOL investment was worth 5% of the company at the time, the roughly 73% difference between then and now indicates that AOL's value has dropped from $20 billion to just $5.5 billion. This, as Kaplan says, is much worse …

President Barack Obama has promised that a broadband stimulus package is on the way, with $6 billion as the estimated starting point. However, a new Pew Internet & American Life Project survey indicates that Obama's efforts may be for naught, as many Americans who don't currently have broadband access say they don't want it, no matter how cheap or fast the connection is. According to the survey, 19% of dial-up users say "nothing" would get them to upgrade their service, not even lower prices. Meanwhile, a third of those who don't regularly use the Internet at all, said they "were …

China's Internet crackdown continues, Reuters reports, as Beijing seeks to protect its youth from "vulgarity" on the Web. The Chinese government, insisting the crackdown has nothing to do with stifling politics, has already detained 41 people, saying the move is in reality no different from laws in the U.S. and Europe which aim to keep children away from harmful sites. "The purpose of this campaign is very clear," Liu Zhengrong, deputy director of the State Council Information Office's Internet Bureau, told a small group of invited reporters. "It's aimed at creating a healthy Internet environment for all young people and …